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Positives from the South Africa Test series

Rana

Rana

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First of all, if anyone was expecting anything other than a 3-0 to South Africa, they really were hoping the world from a team that has lost 2 home series since MISSYOU left. I believe Pakistan were likely to lose 3-0 even with Misbah and Younis playing this series. However, I have been a very keen follower of Pakistan's away tours to places like England, Australia and South Africa and therefore I would like to point out some of the positive things that I have noted in this series. I don't think this series was an excruciating experience to the away tours I have witnessed in the past, particularly the summer of 2010 when Umar Gul was the leading run scorer for Pakistan after 2 Tests against England.

1. Babar Azam is ready to dominate the Test arena also!

He has been tested before in places like New Zealand, however this series should prove to most followers around the world that Babar is a gifted talent and has no real problem facing quality pace bowling. He should take a world of confidence with him and continue to cash in big time against opponents of a weaker nature and easier wickets. Pakistan have found the next Batting prodigy after Miandad and Inzimam.

2. The renaissance of Shan Masood

Very clear for everyone to see. Shan will also take heaps of confidence into his career having proven so many of his critics in the past wrong. A breath of fresh air after years of failed, young talent. Shan is right now one of the prime candidates to be appointed as the Test captain of the country.

3. Batting at a modern run-rate pace

In general, the wickets did offer assistance to batsmen that wanted to play their shots and due to the quick, bouncy nature of the tracks. I hope the curators of UAE are taking note! Pakistan have proven that they can bat at a modern rate as long as they are willing to play aggresively instead of the usual, boring, lethargic brand of attritional cricket that they are playing which is losing them viewers across the globe. I believe all batsman have played at a strike rate of 50. However Azhar Ali did his best to replicate his UAE tactics only to fail miserably as he just wasn't up to task on these wickets.

4. The ability to compete in general

This is one of the worst phases of a side that has a history of 60+ years as a Test nation, however I do feel that they have performed far worse with better teams in the past on away tours. Pakistan were certainly in a position to win each Test at some point throughout the series. This is much better than the 50 all outs that we have seen in Australia with the supposed legendary sides of yesteryears and the abysmal 2010 performances in England. Pakistan are being dominated, however they are not being rolled over like they have been in the past. It is a shame that the players who should have taken more responsibility did not do so in crucial situations. Also the inability to re-focus after a brake, whether it be a drinks break or a longer break costed them wickets at times when the partnerships were looking promising. Pakistan countered South African bowling's weapon of Pace and Swing pretty well, however they could not counter the weakest bowler in the attack who was simply brought in to bowl short!

Overall, given the quality of the players available and the unfortunate decline of the bowlers playing, I would still rate this performance 6/10 for an away tour against a top opposition. However that does not mean that I would be happy to see no changes for improvement.

Pakistan dearly need a genuine pace bowler and Azhar Ali to either bat down the order or permenantly replaced. Sarfaraz needs to step down from captaincy also. Shafiq lives to see another day, he's done enough. Imam as the only decent option that you have, cant see a better Test match opener than him in Pakistan.
 
I don't think we competed. That would have meant the games would have been closer than they were lol.

But agree with the rest. Our run rate does seem to be better outside of UAE.
 
Babar, Shan, Amir, Shady, and Asad

Shaheen, Sarfraz, Abbas will take away some good memories and next time around, we should win the series in RSA.
 
Didn’t find anything new to be honest, but there might be some positives in future : I am eagerly waiting for Sarfraz’s press conference.
 
1. Shan Masood's massive improvement of technique & temperament.

Resilience & fight he showed against quality pace bowlers who Test your skillset from A to Z.


2. Babar Azam's confidence as a Test player finally. Now He looks as an assured Test player and someone who belongs at this Level. His Class, his dominating aggressive batting which has been missing in Pakistan Test team since 2011. He batted with +ve intent while playing percentage Cricket.


3. Asad Shafiq's flamboyant batting. Finally opting to play with intent and shunning " thakka cricket " ie blockathon. His Test Career after 1st Test was on the line but he survived and came back strongly. More Consistency is needed from him from here on as last two years haven't been good for him. Hope this ends the lean patch.


4. & 5. Shadab Khan & Faheem Ashraf as I have mentioned there value in playing eleven in Tests outside Asia


Post number 50

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...adab-Khan-and-Faheem-Ashraf-in-SENA-countries




Although it's a thread about +ves but the biggest -ve and disappointing aspect was Mohammad Abass. He got fit too late and wasn't in any rhythm whatsoever hence he missed his line and length to many times and wasn't effective. He got injured at a time when he was most needed and he was rushed back needlessly. Such bowlers need atleast 2-3 FC matches to get back their rhythm and channel bowling but He just bowled few overs in the net post injury and than had a poor series one which he would want to forget and get out of his system very soon.
 
Positives- people who performed to required level or showed glimpses that there is goodness to come

Babar
Shan
Amir
Shadab
Faheem
Shaheen


Negatives- noway near the mark at any point
Azhar
Fakhar
Yasir

Neutrals- had decent spells within the games but question marks still there
Imam
Hasan
Abbas ( injury related- still our top bowler)
Sarfaraz ( sneaks in from the negatives)
Shafiq ( expected and needed more)

The neutrals can go one of two ways. The senior within we needed more from, but if they can not do it, do we need to move on from them??
The others I am comfortable with. They had extenuating circumstances.
Hasan had spells but was in and out
Imam showed in patches there maybe something there
Abbas was coming back from injury
 
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Babar,Shan and to some extent Shaheen and Shadab.

Also our quick scoring was a breath of fresh air.At times it was too quick that the batsmen actually forgot to leave the balls they should have and tried to attack every ball.The key is to play the balls on merit but atleast it showed that we can score quick outside the dead pitches of UAE.
 
Our batting let us down at crucial stages.

In the first test we were doing well in the second innings and looked good to set a total of 200+ and then boom we collapsed.

Similar collapse in the second innings of the second test cost us that game.

In all three matches we failed in the first innings.

So the only positive I can take from this is that we have the ability just that we lack in the mental side of things.

Other then that Shaheen is a positive although disappointed with his overall pace. But he's still young and hopefully he get his speed up to the mid 140's as he develops.

Barbar showed everyone the talent he possesses. He was good for at least one century if not two but the rest let him down. He needs to bat at 3 or latest at 4.

Masood showed good technique and was a pleasant surprise to everyone. He needs to kick on now and cover his starts in to big scores.

Shadab shows character everyone time he plays. He brings energy to the field and has a lot of talent with both bat and ball. He needs to be persisted with.

Fahim has a a lot of potential with the ball and showed glimpses of it in this match. Batting wise, he needs ti improve his shot selection but I think he can be an extremely useful third seam bowler and a decent lower order batsmen. His test with bat will come when we need 50 odd to win with four wickets left not when we're 200 for 7 chasing 380 with three wickets left.

There are plenty of positives and I think we have enough talent to do well. The real problem is playing on dead UAE surfaces and the state of our domestic cricket.
 
Hasan123 said:
I don't think we competed. That would have meant the games would have been closer than they were lol.

But agree with the rest. Our run rate does seem to be better outside of UAE.
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Its all about the fine margins. Unfortunately our batting collapsed each time we were getting to positions of authority. It has to be mental problem.
 
On these wickets it's not about the quantity of runs but the quality. Only one batsman stood out for Pakistan and that's Shan Maqsood. Batted really well and didn't throw his wicket away. If only we could trust Pakistan to develop players though. But as long as Micky is there the is hope.

Look at how he transformed AB, it's easy to forget how horrible he was in his first three years of international cricket. Yet Micky never dropped him coz he had a good attitude back then (sellout).

He should average 45 away from Asia at the very least and 50 there. The way he handled the best bowling attack in the world was just incredible, especially in these conditions is the best I've ever seen from an Asian bat. Pace, bounce, swing and seam took it all in his stride as if we were a nothing side, incredible. Not even Sachin had such consistency in SA (bar 2011 against our weakest attack since readmission). Looking forward to watching him develop, please be patient with him.
 
soso_killer said:
On these wickets it's not about the quantity of runs but the quality. Only one batsman stood out for Pakistan and that's Shan Maqsood. Batted really well and didn't throw his wicket away. If only we could trust Pakistan to develop players though. But as long as Micky is there the is hope.

Look at how he transformed AB, it's easy to forget how horrible he was in his first three years of international cricket. Yet Micky never dropped him coz he had a good attitude back then (sellout).

He should average 45 away from Asia at the very least and 50 there. The way he handled the best bowling attack in the world was just incredible, especially in these conditions is the best I've ever seen from an Asian bat. Pace, bounce, swing and seam took it all in his stride as if we were a nothing side, incredible. Not even Sachin had such consistency in SA (bar 2011 against our weakest attack since readmission). Looking forward to watching him develop, please be patient with him.
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What did you feel about Babar and Asad? They also made some pretty good runs along with Shan.
 
Nothing really.

Whenever you lose you say what are the positives then you say player X , y or z. Then few months later another away series come and you lose again then you say what are the positives? Player a, b , c.

Then home series come you win.. everything is forgotten till next away series and again you lose and say what are the positives..

It's a never ending cycle..
 
Babar benefited through the attacking fields South Africa set and a lot of his runs came through edges between gully and third man.
He has poor off stump awareness too. He has a lot of work to do compared to Shan.
With Babar it always felt as if when rather than if he'll throw his wicket away. With Shan it felt like he was gonna get a hundred at anytime. Didn't look like getting out at all. Again it's about the quality of runs not the quantity.
Shandarchowka said:
What did you feel about Babar and Asad? They also made some pretty good runs along with Shan.
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Rana said:
ok
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There were no positives because we didn’t learn anything new.

We knew that we will be crushed 3-0 and we knew the following:

Babar is our best batsman but he needs to improve his temperament and show more hunger for runs.

Azhar is a concrete slab and needs to be kicked out of the team.

Shafiq is inconsistent, but will score enough soft runs to maintain his position.

Sarfraz is garbage and needs to be thrown out of the team.

Imam has solid temperament and is good enough for this mediocre team.

Faheem is not an all-rounder.

The pace bowling attack is massively overrated and lacks pace.

Yasir is rubbish outside UAE/Asia.

If someone puts a gun to my head and force me to highlight a positive, I would perhaps say that Shan Masood has finally become a Test class opener.

The big negative of course was that Abbas has been exposed way earlier than we had thought.
 
soso_killer said:
Babar benefited through the attacking fields South Africa set and a lot of his runs came through edges between gully and third man.
He has poor off stump awareness too. He has a lot of work to do compared to Shan.
With Babar it always felt as if when rather than if he'll throw his wicket away. With Shan it felt like he was gonna get a hundred at anytime. Didn't look like getting out at all. Again it's about the quality of runs not the quantity.
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Thanks fot your insights. Appreciated. I felt Babar modeled his tour on AB Devilliers. I remember AB playing similar counter attacking knocks. Sadly, there was no Elgar/Amla/Markram/Faf to support him.
 
None at all.
Only positive that may happen after this series is Azhar Ali getting dropped
 
Its 2 back to back series whitewashes for Pakistan in SA. Atleast the one in 2013 was against an ATG SA side but this team had lots of rookee players. Even then, Pakistan perhaps won just couple of sessions and got hammered in the rest.

No positives tbh
 
soso_killer said:
Babar benefited through the attacking fields South Africa set and a lot of his runs came through edges between gully and third man.
He has poor off stump awareness too. He has a lot of work to do compared to Shan.
With Babar it always felt as if when rather than if he'll throw his wicket away. With Shan it felt like he was gonna get a hundred at anytime. Didn't look like getting out at all. Again it's about the quality of runs not the quantity.
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Yes Babar stays too leg side of the ball which gets him in trouble against away going and rising deliveries. He needs to behind the line of the ball more
 
Babar averaged 37 on this tour which is at par and not exceptional. Very close to his career average. No improvement in terms of getting big scores.

trying to find positives from this series is like clutching at straws. pakistan need to have a 2-5 year improvement plan starting at the grassroots level
 
Biggest positive is that Pakistan didn’t lose all three tests by an innings and didn’t get dismissed for 100 even once in six innings — that is impressive
 
I enjoy upsetting many so will start with:-
Sarfarz's excellent keeping.
Paksitani fielding Overall
Shan Masood progressed a lot.
Babar Azam progressed a bit more, and is a treat to watch.
Shadab continuing to impress at all levels and all formats - needs a lot of test exposure and captain who trusts in him and bowls him at the right time not when opposition have taken the game away.
Bowling overall was okay level (considering Pak bowled with 'really' only 3 bowlers in first 2 test, and Abbas came back from injury). Pak should have selected Afridi in the final test instead of Hasan.
 
Hopefully other positives would be end of Azhar and end of Sarfraz test captaincy. Inzi needs to select deserving young and in form batsmen, who would have performed much better even without experience, as shown by Shan and Shadab.
 
Positives - Test series is over and we do not have to tour SA again for a couple of years.
 
Shandarchowka said:
Thanks fot your insights. Appreciated. I felt Babar modeled his tour on AB Devilliers. I remember AB playing similar counter attacking knocks. Sadly, there was no Elgar/Amla/Markram/Faf to support him.
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Then he should bat at 4 (not at first drop though), I don't think he batted with Shan at all this series (IIRC) which is sad. South Africa generally struggle against left hand bats. Having a combination of left hand and right hand bat would have thrown us off our game. Especially the contrasting styles of the two batsmen. Maqsood occupying the crease blunting the new ball and rotating strike while Babar counter attacks at the other end. Remember bowlers bowl as a pack and complement each other, it's no different for batsmen too. They must bat as a pair and build partnerships and transfer the pressure to the bowlers.

SA bowlers were never under pressure at all (except the first Test when Pakistan was 100/1), it's either Pakistan were trying to survive early on and then attacked/counter attacked when SA was one or two wickets away from the tail hence they always felt in the game even when Pakistan scored at 3.5-4 an over. It was criminal for Babar Azam and Shan not to bat together throughout the series. They have to bat together.
 
Rana said:
3. Batting at a modern run-rate pace

In general, the wickets did offer assistance to batsmen that wanted to play their shots and due to the quick, bouncy nature of the tracks. I hope the curators of UAE are taking note! Pakistan have proven that they can bat at a modern rate as long as they are willing to play aggresively instead of the usual, boring, lethargic brand of attritional cricket that they are playing which is losing them viewers across the globe. I believe all batsman have played at a strike rate of 50. However Azhar Ali did his best to replicate his UAE tactics only to fail miserably as he just wasn't up to task on these wickets.
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what good is this if you can barely pass 200 runs?
 
[MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] The boggest positive can be end of Azhar Ali torture for you and me.:hs
 
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Shan and Shaheen, otherwise it has been disastrous and wholesale changes need to be made to the batting (which won't happen).

Babar was always going to come good and it is not surprising, hence it was very unfortunate to see him being thrown into the deep end at such a young age in Tests at no. 3, so that a 32 yr old failure could hog the no. 6 and protect him like a child or something.

Pathetic to even see him in the 11.
 
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All in all Pakistan competed far better than the rubbish South Africa did in Sri Lanka.

Pakistan definitely has components to compete in SENA, while SA has zero components to compete in Asia. So this series should be viewed from that prism. I'm by no means comparing failure or mediocrity which I hate doing in any case. But quite a few Pakistan players had less than ten Tests yet handled the best pace attack in the world very well at times. SA has a few senior players by comparison, yet they were at sea in Lanka. Perspective!
 
Barragan said:
Shan and Shaheen, otherwise it has been disastrous and wholesale changes need to be made to the batting (which won't happen).

Babar was always going to come good and it is not surprising, hence it was very unfortunate to see him being thrown into the deep end at such a young age in Tests at no. 3, so that a 32 yr old failure could hog the no. 6 and protect him like a child or something.

Pathetic to even see him in the 11.
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Not wholesale.
Azhar out Harris in.
Asad has 5 tests left (2019 basically)
Rizwan in for sarfaraz only if sarfaraz steps down
The rest is fine.
We are already one of the most inexperienced elevens in world cricket and when we get rid of those 3...
 
Abdullah said:
Not wholesale.
Azhar out Harris in.
Asad has 5 tests left (2019 basically)
Rizwan in for sarfaraz only if sarfaraz steps down
The rest is fine.
We are already one of the most inexperienced elevens in world cricket and when we get rid of those 3...
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No, shafiq needs to go and maybe even imam.

That's a good 3 out.

shafiq maybe good enough for you, but averaging in the 30's is simply not good enough, especially considering he played most of his games in Asia and no. 6.
 
Shan Masood. Looked temperamentally a very solid player, I think on friendlier tracks he could have scored big, he was out to a couple of real brute deliveries when well set. I had no idea he was much more than a steady blocker before this series, but he handled the short ball a lot better than most Pakistan batsmen.
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
Shan Masood. Looked temperamentally a very solid player, I think on friendlier tracks he could have scored big, he was out to a couple of real brute deliveries when well set. I had no idea he was much more than a steady blocker before this series, but he handled the short ball a lot better than most Pakistan batsmen.
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I don't think temperament was the issue with him Cap. He just plays his shots a lot more confidently now. The way he was pulling genuine fast bowlers on these pitches was a stunning revelation for me atleast. I think he would have made a big score in Cape Town if it weren't for Steyn bowling a fast and accurate spell. Should do very well in ODIs while opening .
 
The biggest lesson for my perspective was that you cant have your tail folding like 5 wickets for 15 runs in these conditions, the South Africans peppered our tail with short deliveries and our main batsmen struggled with the short ball, can't expect the tail to fail any better. For the next tour, the team back room staff have to do a lot of work with the tail to help them cope with the barrage of bouncers from the SA pacers so that the tail can wag and atleast support one main batsman out there.

The other lesson was that you have to play 5 bowling options and 4 pacers a minimum. The fitness and endurance of the pacers has to improve, can't have pacers bowling at 127-130 km/hr for most of their spells.

The batsmen have to also bat better, only solution is to practice like mad in the nets against a wet tennis ball and arrive in SA atleast a month earlier.
 
Positive from this SA series??? You asking me to find a needle in haystack...

OP tried very hard and made a point lol same as the coach/captain/Inzi would have or I should say will make :) good luck and we will discuss the same positives coming next test series where these world class beaters in the name of Asad/Azhar/Imam will be showing their skills..

Problem is selecting the deserving players from first class. Until we take out the corrupt system of PCB things will not get better...
 
Pakistan lost this test series and it was expected. Clearly go on to show Pak need to produce better batsmen who are technical strong and mentally not weak to handle pressure situations and fight them out to make life easier for themselves.

We need to invest in our cricket to make Pakistan strong team again. Apart from Babar azam, no one looked like he can survive for more than 5 overs. Azhar and Asad we need to move on from them but slowly and steadily and not rush it, they still good batsmen to play in playing 11, regardless what ppl say we dont have their replacement. Mickey Arthur and his policy not to try bench strength is something PCB should question him, and other 2 batsmen who went with the squad never even tried, absolutely pathetic from him not to try them, he selected fakhar when he is not even a test material as he lacks the technique and temperament. I do want to add that apart from India atm, no one in the world is producing quality batsmens. Which shows that we need to learn from india how they doing this.

Pakistan biggest downfall as i am keep saying is UAE we need to come out of that place if we want our cricket to be as good as any other top side. Batting on slow and sluggish tracks has dented our batsmen technique and shot selections. I mean we have produced few of the most stylish and aggressive cricketers, examples saeed, inzamam, ijaz, razzaq, azhar, yousaf, they were quality. I do feel misbah tenure has also affected our batsmen strike rate and aggressive batting approach.

So what should pakistan do next, relax and focus on ODI SERIES IN SA AND TRY TO BE AGGRESSIVE AND GIVE SOME GOOD PERFORMANCE, we can worries about Test later on after WC. Now please pakistan stand up and deliver a punch we can beat this weak SA odi team.
 
Bowling is a positive, Pak competed well in bowling but the batting wasn't upto the mark except for one or two individual performances.
 
no positives

shan isn't worth the investment
babar will fail at the top

openers are lost

shafiq is still poor so his one good inning once in a while is nothing good
 
Etherealistic said:
Bowling is a positive, Pak competed well in bowling but the batting wasn't upto the mark except for one or two individual performances.
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Pakistani bowling took wickets per 31-32 runs. You can't win much if you are taking wickets at that rate in SA. All that against very weak SA batting line up.
 
Shan is the biggest positive. Great control at the top and was probably the most comfortable driving and pulling the ball. Should play ODIs as an opener. Babar was finally coming into his own in tests and should gain a lot of confidence. He should start batting at 4.

A couple of 50s and 3 ducks for Sarfraz. Absolutely no positive there. He will keep his place. Except for Azhar, everybody contributed in some way and Pak lost the big moments and hence the series. Should have won the first test.
 
Canford Cliffs said:
Its 2 back to back series whitewashes for Pakistan in SA. Atleast the one in 2013 was against an ATG SA side but this team had lots of rookee players. Even then, Pakistan perhaps won just couple of sessions and got hammered in the rest.

No positives tbh
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If Indians can take positives from a 4-1 hammering from England, so can Pakistan.
 
People are saying that Babar's batting was positive. Let me tell you that in test cricket, your best batter should play at 40 strike rates not 90. If your best bat is taking risk in test cricket than it is not positive.It is actually negative that he is not player to his potential. Dominating opponent in test cricket comes from getting 50+ at lowest strike rate and than increase the strike rate and generate more runs.
 
saintgrace said:
People are saying that Babar's batting was positive. Let me tell you that in test cricket, your best batter should play at 40 strike rates not 90. If your best bat is taking risk in test cricket than it is not positive.It is actually negative that he is not player to his potential. Dominating opponent in test cricket comes from getting 50+ at lowest strike rate and than increase the strike rate and generate more runs.
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I think Babar himself has done well in this series you cant take that away from him.
 
Why are you so obsessed about runrate in tests. All your batsmen had to do was bat longer. A 4 man pace attack needs to be blunted for long periods. They will tire and you then cash in without risk.

Babar, Asad and Sarfaraz were massive culprits of getting out unnecessarily because they got carried away by boundaries. If they batted at least 20 overs more per innings the result may have been slightly more embarrassing
 
Saffer_XIII said:
Why are you so obsessed about runrate in tests. All your batsmen had to do was bat longer. A 4 man pace attack needs to be blunted for long periods. They will tire and you then cash in without risk.

Babar, Asad and Sarfaraz were massive culprits of getting out unnecessarily because they got carried away by boundaries. If they batted at least 20 overs more per innings the result may have been slightly more embarrassing
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agree. Playing with less risk increase the chances of getting more runs. That why we have test cricket.
 
Pakhs said:
I think Babar himself has done well in this series you cant take that away from him.
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You cant take away this : A century from Babar would give a test win for pakistan. If he could focus on making 100 than brisk 50 runs, he will do more good to his team.
 
lahoriyah1234 said:
Pakistan biggest downfall as i am keep saying is UAE we need to come out of that place if we want our cricket to be as good as any other top side. Batting on slow and sluggish tracks has dented our batsmen technique and shot selections. I mean we have produced few of the most stylish and aggressive cricketers, examples saeed, inzamam, ijaz, razzaq, azhar, yousaf, they were quality. I do feel misbah tenure has also affected our batsmen strike rate and aggressive batting approach.
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I am not sure how many matches we win in SA and Aus during the times of these quality players. On the other hand these players have support of really outstanding bowlers.
 
saintgrace said:
People are saying that Babar's batting was positive. Let me tell you that in test cricket, your best batter should play at 40 strike rates not 90. If your best bat is taking risk in test cricket than it is not positive.It is actually negative that he is not player to his potential. Dominating opponent in test cricket comes from getting 50+ at lowest strike rate and than increase the strike rate and generate more runs.
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The best batsmen in test cricket have had average strike rates of 50+, not 40.
 
Barragan said:
No, shafiq needs to go and maybe even imam.

That's a good 3 out.

shafiq maybe good enough for you, but averaging in the 30's is simply not good enough, especially considering he played most of his games in Asia and no. 6.
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No he hasn't been good enough but he is in the last chance saloon which is why I said 5 tests left.

Imam needs to be given a chance now. We have played him in the toughest place he will play, so it should be onwards and upwards from here. Imam has only played 10 tests, not 60. But we must see improvements now
 
Saffer_XIII said:
Why are you so obsessed about runrate in tests. All your batsmen had to do was bat longer. A 4 man pace attack needs to be blunted for long periods. They will tire and you then cash in without risk.

Babar, Asad and Sarfaraz were massive culprits of getting out unnecessarily because they got carried away by boundaries. If they batted at least 20 overs more per innings the result may have been slightly more embarrassing
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I don't agree about babar. On 3 occasions he got good nut.
2 times he was 8 or 9th out and that was caught slips because he was in "bat on ball mode"
He brain farted once.

Asad and sarfaraz on the other hand had a more than 1 or 2 shocking dismissals
 
saintgrace said:
People are saying that Babar's batting was positive. Let me tell you that in test cricket, your best batter should play at 40 strike rates not 90. If your best bat is taking risk in test cricket than it is not positive.It is actually negative that he is not player to his potential. Dominating opponent in test cricket comes from getting 50+ at lowest strike rate and than increase the strike rate and generate more runs.
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I think you need to watch the batting. Like Shan, forget the rUN's he made. He never got out throwing his hands at a loose drive and nicking off like sarfaraz and shafiq and imam. It wasn't reckless driving. He was just batting amazingly
Nor was he set up for lbw with head falling over an issue he has had previously
Unable to control the pull once which coach should have words with him about
 
Abdullah said:
No he hasn't been good enough but he is in the last chance saloon which is why I said 5 tests left.

Imam needs to be given a chance now. We have played him in the toughest place he will play, so it should be onwards and upwards from here. Imam has only played 10 tests, not 60. But we must see improvements now
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I'm 50/50 on imam because there is a lack of openers and he did get starts, hence why I said potentially with him.

As for shafiq, he should be culled right now and another middle order bat should be given a chance against SL, to ease him into Test cricket and they won't get a better opponent than SL.

The 32 yr old should be gone, but we all know he won't.
 
Is this the same shan Masood who played in England a few years back had good English but was a blocker and couldn’t play any shots ?
 
I’d say Shan Masood’s and Shahin’s performances were the biggest positives for Pakistan. Good performance from Babar didn’t surprise anyone who knows his potential. Same with Amir.

I remember watching Shan Masood batting with Sami Aslam and thinking Sami Aslam is a much better prospect than him. But he seems to be determined to prove everyone wrong. Coming to Shahin, I didn’t expect him to tear apart the SA batting line up. But I wanted to see how he would fare in those conditions against those batsmen. He actually bowled better than the seniors in some sessions.

Shafiq looked good too until he decided to get himself out in the second innings of the last test. The attitude shown by him in that last test was disappointing.
 
I am impressed with Babar. Although he did not get big scores, his strokeplay was impressive. He needs to concentrate for longer duration and he will be fine.
 
One thing i liked about Pakistan as an outsider is the spunk shown by their lower order. AMir, Abbas, Shadab had this over-my-deadboy approach.
 
Mamoon said:
There were no positives because we didn’t learn anything new.

We knew that we will be crushed 3-0 and we knew the following:

Babar is our best batsman but he needs to improve his temperament and show more hunger for runs.

Azhar is a concrete slab and needs to be kicked out of the team.

Shafiq is inconsistent, but will score enough soft runs to maintain his position.

Sarfraz is garbage and needs to be thrown out of the team.

Imam has solid temperament and is good enough for this mediocre team.

Faheem is not an all-rounder.

The pace bowling attack is massively overrated and lacks pace.

Yasir is rubbish outside UAE/Asia.

If someone puts a gun to my head and force me to highlight a positive, I would perhaps say that Shan Masood has finally become a Test class opener.

The big negative of course was that Abbas has been exposed way earlier than we had thought.
Click to expand...
Mamoon Bhai looks like the entire team needs to be thrown out...
 
The only thing missing so far in this sarcastic gold thread is a customary 'blessing in disguise' post from [MENTION=113824]Nikhil_cric[/MENTION]
 
rhony said:
The only thing missing so far in this sarcastic gold thread is a customary 'blessing in disguise' post from [MENTION=113824]Nikhil_cric[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

Nothing Sarcastic about this thread. Pakistan teams of yesteryears have been far more disappointing with far stronger sides than this
 
Mamoon said:
There were no positives because we didn’t learn anything new.

We knew that we will be crushed 3-0 and we knew the following:

Babar is our best batsman but he needs to improve his temperament and show more hunger for runs.

Azhar is a concrete slab and needs to be kicked out of the team.

Shafiq is inconsistent, but will score enough soft runs to maintain his position.

Sarfraz is garbage and needs to be thrown out of the team.

Imam has solid temperament and is good enough for this mediocre team.

Faheem is not an all-rounder.

The pace bowling attack is massively overrated and lacks pace.

Yasir is rubbish outside UAE/Asia.

If someone puts a gun to my head and force me to highlight a positive, I would perhaps say that Shan Masood has finally become a Test class opener.

The big negative of course was that Abbas has been exposed way earlier than we had thought.
Click to expand...

I noticed that you were abnormally quite on Abbas during his fifteen minutes.

I think it would have been better had you out-right admitted that you do not find him effective.

I understand waiting for him to be tested against better teams and for a longer duration of time but I believe you lacked faith in him from the start.

Of course, with the recent products of the “Pakistani Pace Factory”, I do not blame you.
 
Be honest. Not too many positives.

Apart from Shan Masood, Babar Azam and Shadab Khan others failed to meet our expectations. Is there any pacer I could add in that list?

Really expected Abbas, Hassan and Amir to do better on more bowler friendly wickets. But not once we got them under 200. We had chances but never got our line and length consistent.

Knew that Asad and Azhar would fail under pressure.

Yet again we showed how fragile we are under pressure just like in the NZ series.
 
Last edited:
The fielding didn’t fall apart. I have seen teams with our so-called once in a generation cricketers clogged so mercilessly that they make this tour seem like a resounding success
 
saintgrace said:
You cant take away this : A century from Babar would give a test win for pakistan. If he could focus on making 100 than brisk 50 runs, he will do more good to his team.
Click to expand...

There was only one 100 scored from home side all series as far as I can remember. So Babar who is just getting his act together in test format has done well in the series.
 
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